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Today was going to be our last full day in Kuala Lumpur, so we had to make the most of it. Some of us had shopping to do, and I wanted to see a bit more of KL.

But the first thing we did in the morning was get ready to go the Petronas Towers again. And when I say “we,” I mean Ramesh and I. Loi wanted to sleep in.

The reason why we were going back to the towers were to try and a get a ticket for the sky bridge/observation deck. Why “try”? Because that’s how the system is. You go there early enough, wait in line until the ticket counters open and whoever gets the tickets, gets to up at a pre-determined time. The earlier you are in the line, the sooner you get to go up. It’s free, but an inconvenient method. (EDIT: Turns out there is a much higher observation deck at the 86th floor for which you can pay RM40 and go. I didn’t know about it until much research after coming back from this trip)

Still, since we didn’t have a whole lot planned for the morning, myself and Ramesh thought: “What the hell, last day in KL. Might as well try and get a ticket”.

So we set out, took the monorail and got down at Bukit Nanas station.

The Malaysia Tourism Centre

We walked towards the KLCC Suria and when we finally made it to the ticketing counter…

... it was 8:55am when I took this

Sold out. Oh well.

Not that we were sorely disappointed or anything, but if you are one who is very keen to visit the Sky Bridge, be in line by at least 7:30-8:00am.

Me and Ramesh then just decided to check out the mall.

Suria mall mostly caters to high end brands and luxury designer wear, most of which are on the lower floors. We checked out a few electronics stores, Ramesh checked out the Harley Davidson store, and then we decided to find out where the Aquaria was.

Oh Ryan Seacrest, there is no escaping you is there?

It wasn't open yet

Ramesh was keen on checking out the Aquaria, the largest aquarium in Kuala Lumpur. I, on the other hand, wanted to see more of the city, so we parted ways. I inquired on how to get to Merdeka Square while Ramesh went in to Aquaria.

Here are a few photos from inside the Aquaria, all of which are from Ramesh’s camera.

Entry is RM35 (Rs. 510/$11/€8) for adults

Wonder what they feed piranhas here

Well, that's a bit harsh on the eel isn't it?

This 'turtle+croc+weird' looking creature is called the Matamata

This one is called a Coatimundi

Pretty cool

Cheeky

The Aquaria has the obligatory underwater tunnel

Pinecone fish

The above are only a few of the photos Ramesh took. He took much more. There are sharks, lion fish, water rats and all sorts of other waterborne creatures. From his account, Ramesh said the experience was “okay” — so I don’t know how it compares to a similar offering I experienced in Dubai Mall.

When Ramesh stepped out, he saw a gathering of superbikes and stalls by Yamaha on the occasion of next week’s Malaysian MotoGP.

That concludes what Ramesh saw.

Now back to me

When I left the Petronas Towers, I took the monorail to Hang Tuah station. From there I transferred to the RapidKL line, for which you need to buy another ticket/pass as the monorail card won’t work on this rail service. From Hang Tuah, I headed towards Masjid Jamek station.

Once you come out of the station...

... you are on Jalan Melayu

Luring customers with tickets to new Rajinikant film. Works wherever Tamilians exist :)

Nothing special in here. The usual street market stocking the usual goods.

I came here to go to Merdeka Square, which is a significant landmark in Malaysia’s independence from Britain.

Merdeka Square literally means "Independence Square"

There was a film shoot happening

No clue if this was a South Indian/Malay-Tamil/Sri Lankan or Bangladeshi production

This flag pole is nearly 312 ft high, one of the tallest in the world

Merdeka Square is surrounded by old colonial buildings

It was here on August 31st, 1957, that the British flag was lowered and the Malaysian flag hoisted for the first time

Not sure what these buildings were

Plenty of tourist buses stop in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad building

Sultan Abdul Samad building in front, several bank HQs in the background

Merdeka Square is the venue for Malaysia's annual National Day Parade

The one on the right seems like the lead actress in this shoot; they were shooting with RED cameras (Yes, I'm a nerd, I notice these things)

It was time for me to move on.

Not that I knew where I was headed next

I just like to roam about and explore

After passing by an area full of businesses serving Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, I found myself in an alley which housed what looked like a Chinese temple.

So I went in

As I left the temple, I found out the name of the place

I walked a bit further out...

... and I soon realized I was in China Town

There was a shopping complex right opposite the entrance to Petaling Street and so I decided to check it out. I unfortunately couldn’t take any photographs inside because the security guard asked me not to. But inside were stores selling essentially the same goods I saw yesterday night in Petaling Street, but at far lower prices.

So word of advice, just because you see bags on Petaling Street with it’s street market appearance, don’t assume the prices are low. There are plenty of other places, like this not-so-fancy shopping complex right outside Petaling Street selling the same stuff at lower prices.

In fact when I called up Loi to tell him about bag prices here, he told me he found similar prices in the shops on the higher floors of Times Square shopping mall.

I had lunch from a burger joint and continued my ‘walk around town’. I asked around for where “Little India” was and was directed to walk towards KL Tower.

I stepped in but quickly found nothing worthwhile

Yes, to the right is a 'chapathi house' named Restoran Santa

I came across this street which looked more like "Little Chennai"

There’s a slew of silk shops, and plenty of pure-veg restaurants on this street.

I found myself back to Masjid Jemak

Masjid Jema' (mosque)

I didn't qualify for any of the above, so didn't bother going in

It was time for me to head back to the room and catch up with Ramesh and Loi.

Some beauty show at Berjaya Times Square

Once I got back to Irsia, the three of us decided to go to Midvalley Megamall, one of Kuala Lumpur’s largest malls.

To get to Midvalley Megamall from Berjaya Times Square, take the monorail from Imbi to KL Sentral. Then, you need to transfer to the Komuter train line, and Midvalley has a stop by itself.

After Loi’s shopping from Toys R Us, Ramesh’s purchases from Carrefour, we headed up to the top most floor.

They have an exclusive ManU store and an 18-screen multiplex up here

Went in here as well

Midvalley has a few nerdy joints up here, including video arcades and a store dedicated to board games. But we couldn’t hang out any longer, it was nearing 7pm. There was one last thing I wanted to do for our last day in Kuala Lumpur — head to the observation deck at KL Tower to get a view of Kuala Lumpur city at night.

To save time, we took a taxi… and got a driver with some pretty good taste in music

After an enjoyable ride, we reached Menara KL, which is perched atop a small hill called Bukit Nanas. Thus making it ‘taller’ than the Petronas Towers. Myself and Loi bought our tickets and made our way up, Ramesh stayed below to check out an F1 Zone.

Tickets cost RM38 (Rs. 550/$12/€8) for adults

I was more keen on visiting the observation deck of KL Tower than the Skybridge at Petronas Towers, simply because the viewing height at Menara KL is much higher.

And I was right...

... the view was great!

But there was one annoying problem

The bright lights from the shops up here!

The whole experience of the view at night from up here is marred by the lights reflecting off of the glass — which also made for tricky photography. And because I didn’t have a tripod, it was tough for me to get steady shots.

Why on earth would you want to sell jewelry up here? 'High' prices?

We went around the observation deck

They have a display showing you the other tall telecommunications towers around the world

Menara KL is the fourth largest telecom tower in the world

The tallest is still the CN Tower in Toronto

You can see Berjaya Times Square from up here -- also 'cos it isn't that far :)

I took one final shot of the Petronas Towers before heading back down

There are two 'sky high' restaurants at KL Tower

This is the elevator lobby

Timings are 9:30am to 9:30pm

Your ticket also includes entry to the Cultural Village, which was closed by 8pm

So we used our ticket to avail the one free ride around the (virtual) Sepang circuit

In the small cars though, you have to pay to sit in one these life-size replica cars

Ramesh paid to sit & play in the Ferrari car

There's an F1 store here as well

You can opt to use your ticket for a complimentary ride as well

We waited for the free ride down to the base of the hill

Once at the base, we walked towards Bukit Nanas monorail station.

One final look

Walked past the Hard Rock Cafe Kuala Lumpur

Which saw a gathering of Harley Davidson owners that night

One final look at the beautiful twin towers

This is the monorail network map

The monorail trains aren't very big

Once back in the room, we decided to enjoy our final dinner of this trip, and sit somewhere nice. There are a few cosy eateries behind Berjaya Times Square, where we were and so, we sat down at Wings musicafe.

They have a live stage where artists perform every night

Had Kilkenny Irish beer for the first time

It was a relaxing dinner to end our last day of sight-seeing in Kuala Lumpur. The musicians were mostly local artists, aspiring singers who performed mellow acoustic fare. Much needed for us tired souls.

Once back in the room, we packed up. And when I mean “we,” I mean myself and Ramesh…

... this guy was too lazy to do any packing -- and he had the most luggage!

Tomorrow morning, all we had to do was check out and head to the airport in the afternoon for our after Air Asia flight back to Bangalore.

We only had from morning to evening in Singapore today, so we decided to skip Sentosa as the journey all the way to the theme park wouldn’t be worth it unless we could spend time at Universal Studios as well… for which we didn’t have “sufficient funds”. So, Singapore Zoo it was.

This being our last day in Singapore, I decided to take a few photographs of ABC Hostels, in case you were curious as to what its like from the inside.

The reception

The hostel provides free internet; we found it quite slow

This is the kitchen

...where you'd come to make your own breakfast or anything else

Once made, you have to sit outside. Once done, wash the dishes yourself. (Photo taken by my friend Loi)

Our room was at the end to the right

I didn’t take a photo of the room we got because it was in a mess, but picture this: not a big room, big enough bed for 3 mid-sized adults, functional split A/C, well-lit, with a mirror and table. That’s it. If you want more than a room for just sleeping, its best you book yourself into a regular hotel.

After finding out how to get to Singapore Zoo, we set off for Bugis MRT station.

To get Singapore Zoo, we first needed to get to Ang Mo Kio MRT station, and then take a bus from there.

Ang Mo Kio bus interchange

But as soon as we got down, there was a van waiting with a woman approaching tourists with a deal. Buy the entry ticket with 4 tram rides and a drop to the zoo in a van (one way) for SGD23 (SGD18 + 5 for the tram rides). We knew the entry fee is SGD18 (Rs. 620/$14/€10) for adults so it seemed like a good deal (but what do we know). Plus we didn’t have to take the bus.

The entry ticket costs SGD18 even if you were to buy it at the zoo entrance

After a 15 minute ride, we arrived at Singapore Zoo. The weren’t a whole lot of people in queue — but we just walked straight in as we already had our entry tickets.

They have real ones too

First up, monkeys…

… then parrots.

From this point on, the zoo truly begins.

Greater mousedeers they are called

These otters were 'busy'

There was a siamang (a type of ape) hiding in the trees

Next up, my favourite animal

There they are!

Hello beautiful

Its roar was sooo... (oh who am I kidding), it was only yawning

Babirusa, native to Indonesia

The zoo has a few sections for smaller creatures, like reptiles which are on display in enclosed exhibits.

The pygmy hippo... or at least half of it

Desert warthog a.k.a Pumba

This was at the Australian Outback section

Carpet python

If you don't know by now, they're called kangaroos

This I didn't know

Remembering the late Steve Irwin

Funny looking thing, this bird

Next up, baboons!

They have to share their space though

It's fun watching monkeys behave human

Banded mongoose

Saddle billed stork

Black backed jackal

Next up were Asian elephants

This is where they have the shows

Good on SBI for doing so

Hog deer

Manatee

African penguins

Didn't know there were penguins in Africa

Guess what this creature was

Yup. I didn't bother knocking on the glass or anything. I was too chicken.

Boat rides on the lake are also available

This is where the chimpanzees play

Couldn't get a clear shot of its face

They have a few ponies at the kids area

This was some model of an old farm house

Oh the irony of seeing a KFC at a zoo

Llamas

Mandrill baboon

More monkeys

Malaysian horned frog. Waited for the guy to turn around. He didn't.

American bullfrog

This is one of the most intriguing-looking pigeon-type bird I've seen

After this, we entered a fairly large netted section which enclosed a few bats, birds and some more interesting animals of this world.

Took this on the same settings as the last shot, which is why it came out this way. Still, kinda cool.

You can get pretty close to these animals but you are asked not to touch them or feed them

Lemurs

Sloth. How these animals eat upside down is amazing.

Went in here next

Shooting the above leopard proved to be quite difficult, and in this video you’ll see why:

They did stay still eventually

Puma, the real thing

Finally, his highness truly

:P to you too

The king gets a pretty big ground for himself

You can pay to feed the giraffes and get your photo taken

Hello ostrich

It was very windy and looked like it was going to rain fairly soon

The fastest animal on the planet, the awesome cheetah

The rhino and its cleaning birds

'Orangutan island'

I know you can't make out much of what this is

The one above was a very big ape (I believe an orangutan), quite old in age who was kept in this glass enclosure and it was quite dark… so you really couldn’t see it. It was moving around very slowly but unfortunately, due to the darkness inside its “cage” and the reflection on the glass, I couldn’t really get a good shot.

Aww shucks, I really wanted to see the polar bear

Despite having paid for 4 rides, I never availed the tram rides

With that, we were finally done. Well, sort of. We could have stayed back longer and waited for some of the animal shows. But it was 2:30pm, we had to have our lunch and the skies were quite cloudy.

I still wanted to go to Marina Bay Sands and since Ramesh and Loi were against it, I wasted no time and decided to go on my own.

Something for next time

I waited at the bus station just outside and in under 5 minutes, got one that goes to Ang Mo Kio MRT station.

They have a street named Tagore Drive; not sure if it's after our Rabindranath Tagore

It was nice to drive through the residential side of Singapore. Compared to all the commercial glitz and glamour of the central business district, Ang Mo Kio seemed so quaint and… nice.

Anyway, I arrived at Ang Mo Kio bus terminal in around 15 minutes and got down to take the underpass to the MRT station. Ang Mo Kio is located on the red line, so the train goes straight to Marina Bay — the last stop. The ride took another 15 minutes.

Once I was out of the station/construction site (it looked like they were upgrading the station) it was still drizzling.

That's where I was headed

It was tough holding a camera on one hand and an umbrella on the other

When I saw this, I smiled :)

Why did I smile? Because seeing the above instantly reminded me of another ‘marina’ I was at in April. I could help but go: “Ahh, so that’s where Dubai got the idea from!”

Marina Bay City Gallery

The mall at Marina Bay Sands Casino & Hotel

More stores are set to open

Felt like going in just to see the car

They offer boat (sampan) rides on these canals

To get to the hotel and Sky Park counter, you need to go down this

Go up, come out the left side of the lobby, which leads out to the Helix Bridge

Then take a left and go down this escalator. Down here is the ticket counter for the Sky Park.

And when I got there they asked me to wait because the sky park was wet.

$@#%!

Turns out they have a “wet policy” which essentially closes the observation deck to visitors if the observation deck is wet. I asked them if I could go up as I was leaving Singapore in a few hours but they said sorry, they couldn’t make an exception.

I told them I couldn’t wait as I had a flight to catch in a few hours time, so I didn’t.

I made way back up disappointed and decided to check out the hotel instead.

You could tell by looking at the guests coming down to the lobby they were high rollers; in town to gamble a lot of money away.

Since I couldn’t check out the Sky Park, I thought I’d at least check out the casino.

Buuuuut… the casino has a strict dress code… and a “No Photography” rule — both of which I didn’t qualify for. I didn’t even bother using the “but I’m leaving Singapore in a few hours” excuse as one sight of the huge security men at the casino entrance will make you think otherwise.

So I made my way back to the mall

Damn you rain god! Ruining everything!

Saw this "wishing well" of sorts outside the mall. I had to take a closer look.

If you are wondering what those are... they're coins!

I went to the other side of the mall to where the buses to the Marina Bay MRT station are.

Besides having a 2500-room hotel, casino and a shopping mall, they also have Singapore's largest convention center

Sigh. So close, yet nowhere near.

It sucks I couldn’t check out Marina Bay Sands Casino & Hotel the way I had planned. Oh well, another thing for next time.

It was past 4:30pm when I boarded the bus back to the MRT station. The drizzling hadn’t stopped, and I had to take the metro back to our hostel. I got to the hostel before my friends did and I used the time to get out of my wet clothes and re-pack. When the other two arrived, we took all our bags and walked towards Victoria MRT.

We took the MRT all the way to Terminal 2 at Changi. As soon as we got out, right in front of us was a board showing the layout of Changi Airport. Three big terminals… and then one tiny red square. That was our budget terminal

It was so funny, I regret not taking a photo of it. It was like the big guys just wanted to keep rubbing it in on how cheap people who avail budget carriers are, just so they would quit and use the regular airlines instead.

Anyway, we were at the budget terminal by around 6:30pm for our 8:15pm Tiger Airways flight. And then the flight got delayed by 30 minutes. While we could pass time by availing the free internet and having snacks at the airport, it was still annoying as it only meant our arrival at Penang would also be late.

A minute before announcing it was time to board, most of them were sitting on the floor

Departing 20:15; current time - 20:38. Oh Tiger... :)

Once the plane did finally take off, we all three agreed on one thing: we were definitely coming back to Singapore!

Even though it was only 3 days, we loved every bit of it. Except the rain bit, we all hated that. We also decided we come back during F1 week but stay much longer.

Thats just some of the many container ships at Singapore Port

We landed at Penang, got through immigration quick and soon took a pre-paid taxi to head to Georgetown, where our guesthouse was.

Hello Malaysia

It was raining here as well

It took more than half an hour to reach our hotel in Georgetown, that’s how far the airport was. We were going to be staying at Old Penang Guesthouse during our time on Penang island.

We booked a triple/family room

Since it was nearing 12am, we quickly went out in search of dinner.

We were told there were 24 hour restaurants, mostly serving Indian cuisine, not too far from our guesthouse. We walked under our umbrellas and got into one.

What I had: Nasi Kandar

Basically rice with your choice of meat and a mix of curries. Yum it was.

There were many ‘Indian’ restaurants in the area.

Kapitan's is quite popular - and open 24hrs

Yup. A burger stall honouring Machester United. Just one of many such tributes we came across in Malaysia in honour of England's most famous football club.

There is a 7-Eleven and quite a few bars near our guesthouse

Once back in the room, and a warm shower later, we did our calculations and thought about what had to do tomorrow.

In my ongoing quest to try out things I've never had before, I drank this. It was okay.

Our first trip to Singapore was done, and Malaysia had begun. We only hoped it would be nice & sunny in Penang tomorrow.

Oncewe took a left and got on to “The Walk,” I pretty much knew why people throng to this place. It’s essentially Dubai’s ‘Exhibition Road’ (a once very popular stretch in Bahrain where traffic moves slowly and people, well, come to show off — among other things).

The Walk is part of Jumeirah Group’s massive property by Jumeirah beach. Lined along the stretch are shops, restaurants, hotels and the Jumeirah residences.

The Sofitel Hotel, Jumeirah

We finally managed to get a parking spot and while there were the usual luxury brands, given this is Dubai, one really needs something too rare to really stand out from the crowd.

And whoever was the owner of this Batmobile-esque Mercedes McLaren SLR, surely had it!

Freakin’ sweet. A supercar indeed!

Jumeirah Beach Residences

The (not so great) beach

After watching the sun set, we went back to the parking lot.

Before you ask... yes, petrol is cheap out here

Since it was time sunset prayer, Azhad and Jassim made their way to the prayer hall like good muslims, while I waited out looking at the slow moving traffic.

After prayers, we moved on.

Passing through Jumeirah Residences

Big elevators for big people and their big cars (not Azhad)

Jassim told me that we needed to crossed over to the other side as he wanted to show me something. I didn’t really know what or why but I figured it would be more buildings.

It was buildings alright…. but I never expected this!

Panorama consisting of 7 shots

Beautiful.

I really wasn’t expecting a sight like this in, of all the places, Dubai. I was looking forward to seeing all this when I go to Singapore in September and in Hong Kong next year, but in the middle of a freaking desert? Wow.

Now I get what Dubai Marina is all about. It’s like the guys at Emaar Properties (the same folks behind Burj Khalifa) visited Marina Bay in Singapore and Hong Kong’s Kowloon Bay and went: “Hmmm, very bretty… very nice… we like… we want also.* ”

And then came back, spent a few billion, dug out a lot of sand and half a decade later — voila!

The steps we came down from (Jumeirah residences in the background)

Azhad talking away

Private yachts can be rented for cruise parties

We went up to take a walk across the bridge

We crossed the bridge road over to the other side

After being mighty impressed with the world’s largest man-made marina, we headed back to ‘show-off boulevard’.

Back at the The Walk

We set off into town and made our way to the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue for tonight’s David Guetta’s concert.

Kinda looks like New York's Chrysler building -- but of course Dubai had to out-do NY, so they made two!

The Rotana Tower Hotel

Upon reaching the venue, we figured we still had some time to enter so we decided to do dinner. Jassim parked his car near Emirates Towers and we made our way to Nando’s.

They have these 'space stations' (a.k.a Metro stations) all over the place

Trying to take photos while on the travelator

The trains have no driver by the way -- it's all automatic

What I ate at Nando's

Me and Jassim had a good meal, Azhad didn’t … and wanted to get home quick!

So after seeing our friend off at the metro, me and Jassim went back to the car to get ready for ‘the party’.

Emirates Towers in the distance

And there she is in the distance

After finding a parking spot, we walked towards to the concert hall where there were a lot of guys with heavily waxed hair and girls with heavily waxed skins.

And boy were we glad we bought our tickets well in advance! The show was sold out and many were around seeking extra tickets. We got in around 11pm where an opening DJ was was warming up the crowd.

The man himself didn’t hit the stage until 1am. And just when he was about to… disappointment. My Nokia E72 with the 5 mega-pixel camera dies out on me. All I’m left with is my mom’s basic 2mpx Nokia and even that was low on battery.

Sorry, but these grainy photos are all I have. (Some are from my friend Jassim’s iPhone)

This is when he hit the stage

Grainy photos won’t do the concert justice, so just watch this if you want to know what the atmosphere was like:

To sum in up in one word: AWESOME! This was one of the best concerts I have been to. The crowd was insane! Over 10,000 people packed into one massive hall. And I would so pay to see David Guetta live again!

David Guetta left the stage exactly at 3am, the time when all of Dubai has to shut off it’s loud music and stop the sale of liqour.

The tired crowd making their way out of the exhibition center

The (very) long queue for taxis

By the time we reached the car, our legs were tired as hell! This was one packed-evening/night/dawn. I saw a lot, ate a lot and danced a lot.